The Size and Tenure of Farms in France. 453 



farmed estate is not much over a sixth of the size of one 

 so held in Great Britain. It may be remembered that 

 although the British returns showed more than an average 

 number of owner-farmed holdings under 5 acres, the 

 greatest percentage of farms in the landlords' occupation 

 occurred in the holdings of the largest area, such as those 

 exceeding 500 acres. 



In a further set of tables, which deal not with the 

 position as to ownership, but simply with the relative size of 

 French holdings, a larger acreage is dealt with, for both 

 the woods and uncultivated grazings are there included. 

 This brings up the total of the agricultural territory ot 

 France to 124,600,000 acres, whereof almost exactly 

 3,000,000 acres is owned by the State — the national forest 

 area alone slightly exceeding 2,690,000 acres. This area is 

 excluded from the classification of agricultural holdings by 

 size, bringing the total so analysed down to a little under 

 122,000,000 acres, a figure which still includes the woods 

 and forests belonging to the communes, which cover an area 

 more than twice as large as the State forests. It includes also 

 the 15,300,000 acres of the woodlands in private hands, and 

 the 15,400,000 acres of rough uncultivated land, all of which 

 have a place in the table in which the relative dimensions 

 of the holdings are exhibited. These features must be 

 borne in mind, as they make the area dealt with less 

 comparable to the so-called cultivated area here, than that 

 which formed the basis of the preceding comparison of 

 French holdings according to ownership or tenancy. 



The enlarged basis is thus probably accountable for the 

 extended number of holdings, which are returned for this 

 purpose as 5,703,000, in place of the 5,618,000 already given 

 These holdings are classified in eleven groups, the smallest 

 including all holdings below a single hectare (or 2j acres), 

 and the highest class embracing all holdings of more than 

 300 hectares (or 741 acres). The several groups or classes, 

 as well as the areas dealt with, do not lend themselves easily 

 to comparison with our returns, but in a condensed form the 

 results are sufficiently interesting to be given, as under, in the 

 accompanying table, which shows the number and extent of 



